Hundreds of uniformed public safety officers—both police and fire—from many Southern California jurisdictions joined the family and friends of San Bernardino County Fire Captain Vance Tomaselli at a memorial service for Tomaselli on Wednesday, March 5. The memorial ceremony was held at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland.

Captain Tomaselli suffered a fatal stroke while responding to a fire on February 16. He was driving a fire engine from Angelus Oaks Station 15, where he had served as a Paid-Call Firefighter for 28 years. Captain Tomaselli underwent surgery but succumbed to the stroke late Thursday evening, February 21, 2008.

The memorial service included remembrances of Tomaselli by County Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, Chief Pat Dennen, Division Chief Thom Wellman and others who remembered Tomaselli as an outspoken advocate for the fire station he supervised and the Angelus Oaks community, in which he was a community leader.

At additional ceremonies outside the church, the salute continued with bagpipes and a flyover by three emergency helicopters. The ceremony ended with a procession of fire apparatus and other emergency vehicles to the Desert Lawn cemetery in Calimesa, where a private burial service was held. The vehicles traveled along portions of State Route 30 and Interstate 10, which were closed for the procession.  

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